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“VERNA will make a case for women empowerment”

“VERNA will make a case for women empowerment”

Haroon Shahid and Mahira Khan visit NUST to promote their upcoming film, Verna.

The cast of Verna came to NUST for an interactive session on Thursday. The event, organized by NUST Dramatics Club was a part of promotions for the film which is set to be released nationwide on November 17th.

The leading actors of the film, Mahira Khan and Haroon Shahid talked about their journeys from their debut in the showbiz industry, to getting a chance to work in Shoaib Mansoor’s next big film. The cast expressed that they felt great to be a part of the film that promotes women empowerment as well as help address some other major social issues.

The session was scheduled to commence at 14:30, but the cast was only able to arrive around 17:30 due to the traffic problems caused by protests in Islamabad.

Mahira apologized for the unexpected delay, and was greatly touched when Yashal Shahid from the audience shouted out that she was ready to wait another two hours if it meant getting a chance to meet the star in person. Mahira ran up to the audience and hugged her.

To sum up her journey, the leading lady of Verna counted three main points – her hard work, all the people who “carried her through this journey” and supported her, and her intentions. She mentioned that “when your intentions are good, reaching your destination becomes very easy”.

Haroon Shahid also commented that this is not the first Shoaib Mansoor flick that he wanted to be in, he was also in the running for the main character in the highly acclaimed Bol.

When asked about the importance of GPA in life, Mahira answered that it does matter, to much applause from the audience.“Whenever you put your effort into something, it will come on to bless you in one way or another”, she said.Haroon Shahid also chipped in, commenting that his thesis has been due for 7 years now, to another loud cheer.

The interviews were followed by playing the trailer of Verna, and an interactive session with the audience, in which Haroon Shahid invited a member from the audience to sing a duet with him. Yashal Shahid was seen once more when she came up on stage to sing Haroon’s Coke Studio debut song Laung Gawacha with him. Speaking to PaperCrush later on, Yashal recalled the whole incident saying “The best part about my performance was Mahira being a complete part of it. She danced, and actually copied whatever I was doing. I sat on one knee, she did that. I sat cross-legged and she did that too.” On being asked about the film Verna, Yashal mentioned that she hardly watches Pakistani dramas or movies,“but  I already have booked the tickets for Verna!”

Although the session ended well, quite a few people were not pleased with having had to wait so long for the cast to arrive. The organizers of the session tried to keep the audience entertained during the three hours of waiting, by inviting members of the audience on stage to showcase their skills. Rounds of antakshiri were also played, and a tribute was presented to Allama Muhammad Iqbal by students and faculty members alike on account of Iqbal Day. However, a considerable amount of day-scholars had to leave before the cast’s arrival because of their vans, and many students like Aiman Zaka were extremely disappointed.“It’s bad, not getting to see the cast even after having waited for so long.”Aiman said.

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Alizah Gul Memon

An inquisitively nerdy student, interested in Physics, poetry, and photography.